Certain venues, like for example retail stores, now use radio frequency (RF) identification (RFID) technology to provide asset tracking, enabling better and more accurate accounting of products and any other items which may have RFID tags attached thereto. In some cases, this is done by providing a network of RFID readers fixedly mounted at various points throughout the venue and by having those readers constantly monitor for RFID activity within their respective read-zones. While effective to some extent, RF signals generated by these fixed readers do not always propagate in a manner that is sufficient to read all RFID tags, causing some of the tag not to be interrogated and leaving some room for accounting error.
To address this issue, a more precision-driven approach is periodically implemented where, for example, a store employee inventories the products with the use of a mobile RFID reader that can be positioned in closer proximity and aimed with better accuracy relative to the products being inventoried, and consequently, relative to the RFID tags affixed thereto. However, in many instances the fixed RFID readers are configured to operate around the clock, and what has been observed is that RF energy emitted by the network of fixed RFID readers can interfere with the reading operation of the mobile reader used by the employee. Additionally, it is desirable to avoid shutting down the network of fixed readers for any extensive period of time as such a shutdown could cause RFID-trackable events to be missed.
Consequently, there exists a need for systems and methods that address the issue of interference between fixed and mobile RFID readers operated within a venue without a system-wide shutdown of the fixed readers for any extensive amount of time.
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The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.